“But I say to you who hear [Me and pay attention to My words]: Love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies, [make it a practice to] do good to those who hate you, bless and show kindness to those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other one also [simply ignore insignificant insults or losses and do not bother to retaliate—maintain your dignity]. Whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you. Whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you [only] love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
I am not to react selfishly to the words and actions of my neighbors and my enemies. My struggle is not against flesh and blood. My struggle is spiritual. My war is not physical. My war is spiritual and mental. When I act in the ways of the world, when I look to hurt others, when I look for my vengeance, when I look for my pound of flesh, when I look to get even, when I look to protect my pride, when I look to defend my honor, then I lose sight of what Christ commands. Because I am not important. What is important is being His Ambassador. And to be His Ambassador, to show His love, I need to show “loue, ioye, peace, long suffering, gentlenes, goodnes, fayth, meekenesse, temperancie” (Galatians 5:22-23) in my relationship with the Lord as His Ambassador.
I need to give up the rights that God gave me to serve others. I need to surrender the freedom God gave me to serve God. I need to give up my abundance to help others. If there is something that needs to be repeated, it is this idea today.
Why am I following my culture? Why am I repeating the mistakes of the world? Why am I so worried about me? Why do I want to save face? Why is my pride more important than God? Why am I so selfish?
There is a family, worldly history of making poor choices that I need to overcome. Every family has different poor choices built into their history. I need to come to terms with what those poor choices are in my life and give them over to God. God doesn’t love me because I am saved. God saves me because He loves me.
And He loves me when I am sinner. And He loves me when I walk in His Way. And I am thankful that He can love me enough to look through space and time and decide that two thousand years ago He was going to make a way for me. And He was there making a way for you too. He made that way knowing that I was going to make mistakes and fail BUT He made that decision out of love. And that is what this is all about. Loving God and others a lot more than I do my own pride, my own freedom, and my own abundance.
I can choose to be out there swinging and flailing like the third monkey trying to get on the Ark. Or I can trust in the Lord. And I spent plenty of time being that third monkey. Today and tomorrow I choose to trust in the Way of the Lord. And that means trusting Him when I don’t understand. That means trusting Him when I don’t see a path. That means trusting Him when He tells me things that don’t make any sense to me. Because trusting Him is not about understanding. Trusting Him is about obedience despite and in spite of my own understanding.
I pray that this lesson of Christ lays heavy on my heart when I wake up and want to choose violence. I pray that Christ’s love be an example of how I am supposed to live daily. I pray that I get out of my own way and let God lead in His Way. I pray that I am a better example of Christ’s love to my neighbor and my enemy each and every moment of the day. Let the fruit of the Ruach HaKodesh be there to temper my heart with mercy and compassion to mirror that of the Lord.
I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!
